Abstract

The fossil plants from Rhodesia collected by Mr. Molyneux, and presented by him to the British Museum (Nat. Hist.), are, so far as I am aware, the first specimens to be described from this region. They were obtained from three different localities. The most noteworthy are those from a small area of fine horizontal sedimentary beds, resting on nearly vertical metamorphic rocks, at the Sisi siding on the Bechuanaland Railway. Two of the specimens [V 7592–93] from this locality contain fairly well-preserved fronds of the fern-like plant Glossopteris Browniana, Brongt., and of some of its varieties.

Some of these fronds are remarkable, as showing what I think may possibly prove to be the imprints of the son or the sporangia. Our present knowledge of the reproductive organs of Glossopteris is very unsatisfactory. Nothing whatever is known as to the structural features of the sporangium. The position of the sori or of the sporangia on the frond is still doubtful, for the markings exhibited by certain fronds of this plant, which were regarded by Bunbury and Feistmantel, and more recently by Prof. Zeiller, as indicating the position of the sort, may have had no real connection with the fructification. The markings consist of fairly-large, circular, or oval spots or holes, usually lying in two or more longitudinal series on either side of the midrib. As has been pointed out by several authors, these certainly suggest that the position of the sort may have been similar to that of certain recent Polypodiaceous

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